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Topic: Counting Bees??? (Read 3809 times)

Moots

I also know that it's widely report that a three pound package contains 10,000 - 12,000 bees.

But once you have your bees in a hive, how do you go about accurately estimating their population, or is it even possible? Is their some "guesstimate" to how many bees occupy either a medium or deep frame?

For example, I took a look at my Nucs this weekend....They're 6 frames mediums. As you can see in the picture most frames are pretty well covered, the new frame at the bottom which I pulled to take a look at is being drawn out slowly and had "some" bees on it. I actually had to slid the cover back on slowly and was plowing some bees out the way. Of course, when I show someone this picture, the first question is....HOW MANY BEES IS THAT?

Truth is, I don't have a clue. LOL! So, I guess my question is, does anybody? and if so, what is it based on?

You can come up with any number you want. 99% of the population is going to take your word for it. My rule of thumb is a full size hive is 60,000 when ball park estimating. There are 20 frames (deeps). That's 3,000 per frame. In a nuc if you've got 3 fully drawn and covered frames and the other two are works in progress you've got +/-10,000 bees. Again, it's ballpark and being off isn't going to affect anything anyway.

I call one frame well covered in bees "1 frame of bees". I call one frame sparsely covered in bees "1/2 frame of bees". I call a frame with no bees on it "no bees".... I add up the frames and then I know how may frames of bees I have...

I call one frame well covered in bees "1 frame of bees". I call one frame sparsely covered in bees "1/2 frame of bees". I call a frame with no bees on it "no bees".... I add up the frames and then I know how may frames of bees I have...

That is practically defined. When you inspect the hives, it is good weather and lots of bees are outside.

Important is to note when there are too much bees and the colony swarms if you do not add more room. In late summer it is time to take off extra room.

When you put a swarm into a hive, after 3 weeks 50% of swarm bees have died. Then new bees start to emerge and soon you must add a new box.

What I do with number of bees? - Nothing. I had a wrong knowledge about swarm bee number almost 50 years, but it has not affected to my beekeeping.I have read from book that one kilo bees is 10 000 bees, that is near truth. But when you have 1 kg swarm bees, the number is 6000 bees. 40% out of weight is honey load.

please forgive such newbie questions but during the summer when pollen is plentiful and the hive is growing by leaps and bounds (hopefully) how many deep hive boxes can you end up having, realistically?

I just assume you can end up having 2 deeps and if you want maybe a honey super or two. But I don't plan on adding honey supers this year so realistically how many hive boxes could I end up with at the peak season?

This will be my first year so I'm full of dumb questions! I just want to make sure I have enough boxes/supplies on hand.

please forgive such newbie questions but during the summer when pollen is plentiful and the hive is growing by leaps and bounds (hopefully) how many deep hive boxes can you end up having, realistically? (SNIP)

That depends on a lot of things.

But for an example of what could happen:

I got some nucs May 30. Put them into deeps and fed. In 2 months they were in triple deeps storing honey in the top.

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Moots

My plan was to start with 3 hives, I'm running all 8 frame mediums. I purchased 2 Nucs a couple weeks ago and will probably be moving them to hive boxes in the not so distant future. The plan is to start the 3rd hive with a captured swarm. It's not a goal at the moment to grow beyond the 3 hives but if something would/could force the need to, I'd like to be prepared.

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I also know that it's widely report that a three pound package contains 10,000 - 12,000 bees.

But once you have your bees in a hive, how do you go about accurately estimating their population, or is it even possible? Is their some "guesstimate" to how many bees occupy either a medium or deep frame?

IMO; one can't have too many boxes but should always have 'enough' to allow for possible expansion. I use all 'mediums' so have a goal to have bees build up to at least 4 brood boxes before winter (not always successful) and always depending on the flow will add more boxes to....well...the sky is the limit :-D right?

The most I've ever stacked on a single colony was 8 mediums (4 brood, 4 honey). That was a boomer year! My rule of thumb has been to stay 'ahead' of expansion, so if I have only 8 colonies I'll have enough boxes for 12 boomers.

Hope that helps.

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"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."

IMO... When running medium frame equipment, you need at least 5 boxes per hive.Three for brood and two honey supers. If you run out of honey supers, you can extract and place them back on.Keep in mind that's a minimum amount. I usually stumble on a few swarms from my own bees. So, you can never have enough built.

Been using all mediums for 7-8 years now. I've overwintered in as few as one (guess that could be called a NUC) and as many as 4, never 5. Unless honey was the goal 4 mediums for brood has been plenty in my own experience. But that's just me :) and mine.

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"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."